Sunday, March 9, 2014

The time has finally come..... (and a couple touching stories)

So it's about 40 days past due and the amount of stress up to this point has been immense. There are so many feelings involved at this point that it made this whole "Kickstarter" thing that much more difficult to finalize. On one hand, we can just finally put to rest an arcade that has been struggling just to stay open, but on the other hand, we might have a chance to build something so great and awesome that the opportunity cannot be passed up. I have lost so much sleep over the past 2 months from all the thoughts of both success and failure. There has been a slight increase in revenue and I have definitely seen an improvement in effort of those who choose to visit us on a weekly basis. Whether they are coming for our tournaments or just our console casuals, the numbers have been very solid over the past 2 months since this blog was started. I am just glad people care and also make the effort to be here and support the scene at this point. There has also been a couple more touching moments of people who frequent my shop.

One gentlemen who plays in our Wednesday event and also comes to practice on Fridays had recently told me he had a brain tumor. This same person was also dealing with kidney stones but never made any excuses and just showed up week in and week out. I knew he was in pain at times but he roughed it out and then after a few weeks he showed up to WNF and told me that he just had his tumor removed the day prior. WTF? I can understand someone having a love for their hobby, and also have such dedicated loyalty to go out of their way to be here, but this dude literally just had his head opened and operated no more than a day ago. That in itself was already crazy to me and then this guy breaks through and places like top 3 that tourney. After his loss I noticed he was feeling a bit down so I went over to talk to him and offer a bit of advice and stuff. I told him that I knew he practiced really hard and studies the game like no other. I also told him aside from his work ethic he's a nice guy and shouldn't take it so hard. There will be other tourneys and he will have another shot soon. But he still seemed bummed out so I started telling him how it has been difficult for me still participate and not win like i used to. To go from being a top player and winning tourneys with ease, I was now struggling to place top 8 in my own shop. He then replies, "Watson, I know everything about you, I respect you, and you're like a brother to me." Man these guys always got some tear jerking lines to lay on me during tough time haha. But regardless, we shared a good moment here and by his recent placings I can tell he has put this loss behind him and continued to better himself and his game. Good work man, you know who you are, and thank you for your kind words and support.

There is also another guy who comes here and has helped me out in keeping this arcade open. He's a cancer survivor and always asks me about how things are going here all the time. I tell him the truth and it seemed to bum him out a bit. He told me that he was very happy that I kept the place open so long and that arcades had helped him overcome all the pain and torment he went through while battling his disease. Stuff like this is really touching because you can genuinely see how something as simple as a building with video games in it can become a paradise for people and an escape from reality for those who really need it. This person said without his friends and a place to get away to, he might not have lived through everything. I also thanked him for helping us out here and told him I would do my best to keep Super Arcade alive. These past few months have really been eye opening in that we lost a few good people in the FGC and then I hear these stories of people who look to us as a haven to get away from their problems. My issues are only financial and can be worked on while these people are literally fighting for their lives and struggling with just being healthy. This is another reason why I rarely complain because no matter how rough you think you have it, there are plenty of people out there who have it much worse.

So aside from these couple stories I have been working extremely hard in getting more estimates and making sure everything comes out perfect. I was going to release the kickstarter weeks ago but with the help and knowledge of a few professionals I decided to delay this and make it better before launch. I was also unhappy with the total amount that was required for all the remodeling and revamping so I launched a website selling t-shirts in which i will use the proceeds to lower the final goal we need for our project. I thought it would be a good idea because at least now people would be able to receive something material for helping and the overall goal needed to fund the kickstarter could be lowered making it that much easier to succeed. There is very detailed information on the kickstarter page for all of you to read and you can all decide for yourself if my project and the arcade is worthy of saving. So this will honestly be the final blog I write until everything is launched and you can expect to see that sometime before March 15th. After that feel free to ask me anything you would like as I have always made myself available for questioning and drop by our #NSFW streams on Friday night to stream monster it up and talk to us. We will probably be taking calls and stuff throughout the entire 30 days the kickstart campaign is running so don't be a stranger. Until then, wish us luck and talk to you all again soon.